During certain modern surgical procedures, such as during a laparoscopy procedure, a surgeon introduces a miniaturized surgical instrument into a patient's abdominal cavity via a very small incision in the patient's abdominal wall. The abdominal cavity is at least partially inflated with a gas, such as carbon dioxide (CO.sub.2). The inflated abdominal cavity allows the surgeon to move and manipulate the surgical instrument inside the patient's abdominal cavity to perform required procedures. The surgical instrument normally includes optical sensors to provide the surgeon visual feedback of the patient's internal anatomical structures through the surgical instrument to help guide the surgeon during the operation.
Normally, the surgeon operates the surgical instrument using only the visual feedback through the surgical instrument to position the instrument at a surgical site and to perform the surgical operation within the inflated abdominal cavity. This limited sensory feedback to the surgeon during an operation can pose a significant disadvantage to successfully performing certain types of procedures.
For example, during an intestinal laparoscopy operation the surgeon does not always see the relevant structures of a patient's internal anatomy. Further, the surgeon does not always know in advance the shape, location, and structural features of a patient's relevant internal anatomical structures. The surgeon relies on visual feedback through the laparoscopy instrument to guide the operation on the patient's internal anatomy, whether the relevant anatomical structures are visible or obstructed from view. Unfortunately, important anatomical structures that are not visible from the point of view of the laparoscopy instrument may be unknown to the surgeon during the operation. These unknown structures can significantly affect the success of the surgical procedure.
During surgical procedures that are performed in a patient's inflated abdominal cavity, such as a laparoscopy procedure, the surgeon can benefit from the introduction of his hand, or that of an assistant, into the patient's abdominal cavity. For example, the hand can provide manual tactile exploration and tactile feedback to the surgeon, thereby increasing the surgeon's ability to sense and manipulate a patient's internal anatomical structures. This additional tactile feedback can help guide the surgeon during the surgical procedure in ways that are not possible using only visual feedback through the surgical instrument. For example, where the structural features are unknown to the surgeon in advance of the operation, and are not visible from the point of view of the surgical instrument, the surgeon's tactile feedback provides valuable information to the surgeon which significantly increases the rate of success for the surgical procedures.
Further, the introduction of a hand into the abdominal cavity can provide manual retraction and manual grasping of anatomical structures within the inflated abdominal cavity to facilitate positioning of the surgical instrument. This can provide better viewing through the surgical instrument and can locate and secure the anatomical structures for performing surgical procedures thereon.
Although a surgeon's hands can be a valuable source of tactile sensory perception and manual manipulation of anatomical structures within a patient's abdominal cavity, no known surgical devices or methods allow a surgeon to use manual tactile exploration and manual manipulation inside a patient's abdominal cavity during surgical procedures involving the inflation of a patient's abdominal cavity, such as during laparoscopy. Accordingly, there is a need in the art for a surgical device and method that allows manual tactile exploration, manual retraction, and manual grasping of anatomical structures within a patient's inflated abdominal cavity, such as during a laparoscopy operation.